Dial ‘B’ for Britain

Timeshift – Dial ‘B’ for Britain is a really cool and fascinating insight into the history of the telephone.

First shown on BBC4 on 20th April 2017 this programme tells the history of the British telephone line over 100 years and the telephone on the High Street and in British households over this period. If you think the problems we have today getting a phone line installed are something new – think again, the infrastructure has always been expanding and demand always seems to exceed the supply. From being a plaything of the wealthy the telephone became a necessity of the 20th century and though mainly used for connectivity today it is still very much part of our lives.

The program takes us into the exchanges, talks to engineers, switchboard operators and experts and contains a fantastic array of vintage clips of the telephone in all its glory. Included in the program are a number of phones which we lent the BBC in making the program.